James Reid-Cunningham is a bookbinder and conservator in private practice in Cambridge, MA. He studied history and art history at Johns Hopkins University and Tufts University before beginning his career in conservation at Harvard University. He studied bookbinding with Mark Esser at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Following twelve years as the conservator of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, in 2003 he was named chief conservator of the Boston Athenaeum, a private membership library founded in 1807. After two years as associate director for digital programs and preservation at the Athenaeum, he served as deputy director from 2013-2015.

He was the adjunct lecturer in book conservation in the graduate art conservation department at Buffalo State College (SUNY) from 2009 to 2013, and has conserved books from the libraries of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. In 2006, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the North Bennet Street School. He served as the President of the Guild of Book Workers from 2006 to 2010.

“Enigmatic Devices: the Art of Contemporary Bookbinding,” in Elisabeth R. Fairman, The Poet of Them All: William Shakespeare and Miniature Designer Bindings from the Collection of Neale and Margaret Albert, (New Haven, CT.: Yale Center for British Art), 2016, p. 26-54

Locating Boccaccio John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester, U.K., July 2013 University of the West of England, Bristol, December 2013-January 2014

Brush Up Your Shakespeare, John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester, U.K., 2012

n addition to his conservation work, he is also the creator of design bindings and book objects that explore traditional bookbinding structures in conjunction with modern materials such as rubber, vinyl, tyvek and Formica. He has exhibited his books nationally and internationally.

He is the proprietor of Hematite Press and Wages of Fear, small presses that publishes illustrated limited editions of modern texts, with each copy in an original design binding.

He has taught bookbinding and conservation workshops at many venues including:

Paper and Book IntensiveGarage Annex School for Book Arts in Easthampton, MA.North Bennet Street School, BostonWeissman Preservation Center at Harvard UniversityGuild of Book WorkersNew England Museum AssociationDartmouth College LibrariesKing Library Press, University of Kentucky at LexingtonMiniature Book SocietySan Francisco Center for the BookKilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record at the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of UtahHand Bookbinders of California